Rights of the individual in Handmaid's Tale and Invisible ManThe Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, and Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, are two novels that use an essentially "invisible " " central character to comment on the manipulative power that society exerts on people, destroying the individual. Offred, the protagonist of The Handmaid's Tale, and the narrator of Invisible Man are both invisible as individuals and are manipulated by society to become an asset. natural dehumanized. The authors of these two works use the protagonist to criticize society's use of certain groups of people only as resources to achieve a goal, ignoring the individuality of these people The names themselves, or lack thereof , of the main characters indicate their invisibility in the eyes of society. Offred is named after her commander; she is possessed by Fred and therefore by Fred. His original name is never mentioned. Likewise, the name of the narrator of The Invisible Man is never mentioned. When he joins the Brotherhood, he is given a new name. Both Offred and the narrator of Invisible Man see their real names as a source of self-identification, but society refuses to use their real names. Offred is a natural asset to Gilead because she is one of the few women who still have viable ovaries. She describes the existence of the handmaids: "We are two-legged wombs, that's all: sacred vessels, walking chalices. We are containers, only the inside of our bodies is important. What we prayed for was emptiness, so we would be worthy to be filled: with grace, with love, with self-denial, with seed and with children." (pg. 176, 124, 251) The narrator of Invisible Man is an asset in a similar way. The Brotherhood uses him as a speaker to advance their efforts to take power over blacks. He says “What was 1, a man or a natural resource?” (pg. 303) Offred is not seen as an individual, but as part of a group of women who must serve the Republic of Gilead. When Offred asks the Commander for skin lotion, she says, "Our hands get very dry. For some reason I said ours instead of mine." (pg. 203) Here she sees herself as one of many handmaids, as she was taught to see at the Red Center. The narrator of Invisible Man, like Offred, finds himself identifying with a group and not with himself. He says, “they usually think in terms of “we” whereas I have always had a tendency to think in terms of “me.”.